What’s
more American than apple pie? How about cranberry pie? Now, before you accuse me
of disloyalty, consider these facts. Apples are native to the Caucasus Mountain
region of Russia, but cranberries are one of the most cultivated American
species. Beloved by Native Americans and Pilgrims alike, the cranberry is a
favorite holiday ingredient.

Perhaps a
pie composed entirely of cranberries would pucker the lips, but how about a
cranberry-apple pie sweetened with maple sugar? The point is, if you have
restricted your cranberry consumption to canned cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving
and Christmas, with an occasional loaf of homemade cranberry nut bread thrown
in, you’ve been missing out on a cornucopia of cranberry tastes.

Novel
uses for this red berry have been around for a long time. The North American
Indians used cranberries in a hardy dish called pemmican. They combined dried
deer meat, cranberries and melted fat to make a cake-like convenience food.
Indian women also used cranberry juice to dye rugs and blankets. Because it was
believed that the cranberry had medicinal properties, cranberry poultices were
used to draw poison away from arrow wounds. As cranberries are naturally high in
vitamin C, early American sailors carried barrels of them on board their ships
to prevent scurvy.

Some
sources state that the Indians presented the Pilgrims with gifts of cranberries
and that they were on the first Thanksgiving table in 1621, but there is
controversy about whether or not this is true. Some historians argue that the
earliest Pilgrims could not have eaten the sour berries because they did not
have sugar. But they could have used maple sugar, or dehydrated maple syrup, an
article of food that was widely used by the Indians. (See section on Maple Sugar
and Maple Syrup.)

It is
generally agreed that the Pilgrims gave the berry the name we use today. The
nodding pink flowers with their long pistils reminded them of the heads of
cranes, so they called the plant the “craneberry”—which was later abbreviated.
The name gained favor over “bearberry,” a name that referred to the fact that
bears like to feed on them.

Early
recipes are few and far between. Although the Wampanoag Indians on Martha’s
Vineyard traditionally used cranberries to make a hearty cornbread, one of the
first recorded recipes is from a book penned in 1672 by John Josselyn. He
writes: “The Indians and English use them much, boyling them with sugar for
Sauce to eat with meat; and it is a delicate Sauce, especially with Roasted
Mutton. Some make tarts with them as with Gooseberries.” Other early recipes
were included in a 1796 cookbook by Amelia Simmons entitled American Cookery.

Improving On Mother Nature

Initially, cranberries were gathered exclusively from the wild, but with some
restrictions. Because the berries were so well loved by the Pilgrims—many
Pilgrim wives had created their own recipes—anyone caught picking the berries
before they were fully ripe was subject to a penalty.

By the
early 1800s, the demand for cranberries had outgrown what nature could provide.
In 1816, a Cape Cod sea captain named Henry Hall noticed that the naturally
growing cranberries grew larger and juicer where the sand from dunes had blown
over the runners the plants send out. His observations led to the vast
cultivation of the cranberry that is now standard.

Natural
cranberry “bogs” (cranberries do not actually grow in standing water) had been
created by the retreat of the last North American glaciers about ten thousand
years ago. In clay-lined depressions called kettle holes, water and decaying
matter were transformed into peat, an acidic soil favored by the berry in the
wild. In order to effectively grow cranberries in the vast numbers needed to
make them economically attractive, early cultivators strove to mimic and improve
on the natural conditions that supported their growth.

Although
modern-day cranberry fields are still generally referred to as bogs, cranberries
actually grow in highly prepared and well-drained fields that are near an
abundant water supply. However, a rich peat soil is still a requirement.

To
prepare an area for planting, a field is cleared and leveled. It is then covered
with a layer of sand about three inches deep. Scientists now know that the sand
helps stimulate the plants to grow new roots and more luxuriant shoots. It also
provides good drainage and a relatively inhospitable environment for competing
plants. After the soil has been prepared, cuttings from mature cranberry vines
are placed into the soil deep enough to root in the peat. In three to five
years, the new field can bear a crop large enough to harvest.

The
primary method of harvesting cranberries takes advantage of the fact that
cranberries float. In this method, called wet harvesting, the cranberry fields
are flooded with water. After the flooding, eggbeater-like devices stir up the
water with sufficient force to dislodge the berries from the vines. When the
berries float to the surface, they are corralled to the shore with hinged
two-by-fours and loaded in trucks for delivery to the factory. Wet-harvested
cranberries are generally processed for juice and sauce because, once a berry
gets wet, there is an increased chance of spoilage unless it is processed
quickly.

Dry
harvesting is the second method of harvesting cranberries. Because fully ripe
berries are easily dislodged from their vines, this method employs a
lawnmower-type machine that combs the berries from the vine.

Upon
arrival at the factory, dry-harvested cranberries are subjected to a unique
test. The superior berries are sorted from those that are bruised, soft, or
rotten by taking advantage of the fact that they bounce—that is, they bounce
when they’re good. Anyone who has cooked with cranberries knows they have a
tendency to escape from the package and, when they do, bounce merrily around the
kitchen.

Moving
along a conveyor belt, each berry must successfully bounce over a series of
wooden barriers. Those that fail this simple test fall into a disposal bin. The
ones that pass the bounce test are sold as fresh fruit, typically packaged in
plastic.

You can
expect to start seeing fresh cranberries in the grocery store around
mid-October. It is never too early to freeze some cranberries. I remember the
holiday season of 1991 when I did not stock up on berries before Thanksgiving.
Although the cranberry growers had one of the largest harvest of berries in
recent history that year, most were not considered table quality and therefore
were processed for juice and sauce. Many people had to go without cranberry
dishes for Christmas because the grocery stores only received sufficient
quantities of cranberries for Thanksgiving. Now I always call the Ocean Spray
hotline (800-662-3263) to ask what the year’s harvest is like.

You can
extend the time for enjoying cranberries up to nine months (and from my
experience even longer) by freezing them. Freezing does not significantly alter
their quality, as it can some fruits and vegetables. Also, you can conveniently
use them in most recipes frozen. Just open the bag and pour them in—you don’t
even have to chop them. Most of the time I just add them to recipes whole. This
may change the texture of a dish, but not the overall flavor.

Unfortunately, many pesticides, fungicides and herbicides are sprayed on
commercial cranberries (see The American Cranberry by Paul Eck, Rutgers
University, 1990) but organic cranberries are now being grown in the Cape Cod
region, and are available in some stores.

Not
Just Cape Cod

Though
the early history of cranberry cultivation is entrenched in Massachusetts, it
was not long before other areas starting growing the crimson berry. Cranberry
cultivation in New Jersey, where the Lenni-Lenape Indians distributed the berry
as a symbol of peace, is believed to have begun in 1840. Today with 3,500 acres
under cultivation and a cranberry research institute associated with Rutgers
University located there, New Jersey ranks third in the nation for cranberry
production.

As settlers moved west, they discovered that cranberries grew wild in the
marshes of Wisconsin. Many of the settlers were already familiar with the berry
from Massachusetts and, therefore, quickly recognized its agricultural
importance. Today Wisconsin produces 30 percent of the entire country's
cranberry crop.

Farther
west yet, Washington and Oregon are good cranberry states. Wild cranberries grew
in both states, but commercial cultivation of cranberries got off the ground
when cranberry vines were imported into the area from Cape Cod.

Unknown
to most consumers is that there are several different varieties of cranberries.
Up until Thanksgiving, the primary cranberry on the shelves in East Coast
supermarkets is called as Early Black. This cranberry is a darker or blacker red
variety and more rounded than the cranberry sold from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
The later cranberry is called a Howe. Howes are a little larger, keep better,
and have an oval shape.

In the
Midwest, you are most likely to find Wisconsin-grown larger sized Searles and
Ben Lears. A Ben Lear cranberry is long and oval, while a Searle is
olive-shaped. West Coast cranberries are predominantly McFarlins—but there are
also Stevens and Bergmans. McFarlins are named after a one-time gold prospector
named Charles McFarlin who planted the first cranberry bog in Oregon. McFarlins
are smaller cranberries that have a wonderful aroma when crushed.